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Teatre CCCB
Pilot issue newsletter for Deutsche Bank’s CSR activities in the US.

Format and materials:
Berliner, printed 4–colour on 52gsm improved newsprint.

Typeface:
Univers Deutsche Bank

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Frieze 2011 sponsorship campaign
Campaign identity and materials for Deutsche Bank’s sponsorship of the recent Frieze Art Fair. The idea was inspired by the bank’s commissioned artist who was to create an installation from yellow paint at the event itself.

Format and materials:
White e-flute box that housed a number of A5 pieces of communication. Box was printed 4–colour process plus two specials. A5 items were Chromolux 250 gsm; gloss laminated one side, printed 4–colour + one special. Pack also included unique digitally-printed security passes and lanyard.

Typeface:
Univers Deutsche Bank

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Forum
Deutsche Bank’s inhouse magazine. Published quarterly in English and German, and with a circulation of 112,000.

Format and materials:
237 x 300mm, 56pp, printed 4-colour in Switzerland

Typefaces:
Dalton Maag’s Lexia, including specially commissioned, super-heavy, all-caps weight
Univers Deutsche Bank

A Few Words from the Editor

Whenever Studio 2br inform me of new work they’ve recently completed, I always get excited like a kid that’s had too much sugar :). I guess you could say I have a strong appreciation for what they do, especially their rational approach to grids and typography. (Links to more of their work can be found at the bottom of this speil)

Much of Studio 2br’s output is for Deutsche Bank, a global banking and financial services company with German roots. Not only do they design many of the Bank’s corporate comms and publications but they were also behind the beautiful brand guidelines too which probably explains why everything looks so consistent! Thank you once again to Dave for making this feature possible :)

Links:
Deutsche Bank Guidelines
Deutsche Bank Corporate Comms

About the Studio

Studio 2br is an independent design consultancy working with clients in the UK, Europe and the US.
They provide large organisations with clear thinking, plain speaking and graphic design craft.

www.2br.com

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Primero Primera
Identity and stationery for a hotel.

This boutique hotel was the home for two generations of a family. When starting the project we realized that it would be nice to reflect all the memories of this 7 brother family. So we collected personal pictures in which parts of the house are in the background, or important events for them during the time they were living in the building. We based the identity in making collages with the images. For the brand and signage we designed a stencil font that contains special characters that allowed us to mix in a unique way certain characters like the “i” an the “m” in the word “primero”.

Typefaces used: Primero Roman, Helvetica

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Thinking Furniture by Pepe Andreu
Book Design

This book collects the work of Pepe Andreu, a furniture designer who came to the profession by carpentry. Pepe’s furniture and the way he think are full of details of functionality but they are very respectful with the tradition of artisan furniture. It is therefore that the design of the book should be viewed as an object consistent with his view, the form of binding, the pace of the book (not linear) and the typeface and colour choice breathe the idea of the reinvention of the classic.

The first part of the book is interspersed with ideas, thoughts and pieces from his collection (light green). In the last part the collection appears again but this time the furniture appears in lived, in-home environments. These photos are presented on cards with technical characteristics of the furniture. This card system allows us to produce new cards to complement the collection of Pepe as the production increases, thus making the book into a communication tool for the designer with his audience.

For this book we were interested in using an inline font and for the sake of consistency we decided to design a special cut of Akkurat Outline that for this book we called ‘Peppurat.’

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Escolà
Identity and packaging for a wine shop.

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Alma Hotels
Barcelona City Guide Book

Barcelona City Guide for Alma Hotels, a boutique hotel based in the exclusive Paseo de Gracia area. The content created by ‘It Comunicación’ is based on conversations among influential citizens from Barcelona, structured as Q&A’s. To link the image to that of the hotel (based on graphic drawings of the garden trees), a massive illustration of Barcelona was produced, portraying some key buildings, but also some hidden city treasures. This illustration was then used for the cover and inside dividers, giving identity to the publication. This was also brought to life by Rodrigo Diaz Wichmann’s fantastic photography of the conversations in a documentary and unforgiving manner that contrasts nicely with the graphic illustrations.

Fonts used were Alma’s own Helvetica Neue 75 Bold, plus DTL Fleischmann, in display and display italic versions for headlines and text version for the body copy.

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Buenas Migas (Focaccia) Restaurant
Corporate identity

Buenas Migas is a quality fast food chain of restaurants, which mixes Cornish with Genovese gastronomy to produce simple, fresh and tasty but healthy dishes at a value for money price. Their main distinctive trait when compared to their competitors is the high quality of their product, as a result of their artisan approach to their work.

When producing all of the communication materials: ranging from packaging pieces and poster promotions to signage, the main drive for the design was to show their core values of nature and craftsmanship. The idea is simple: everything they do is handmade, so all of the communication is handmade too—all of the products, the posters, the blackboards, the signage, the pricing tags, the service materials and any piece included in the restaurants is drawn by hand. Obviously, the pieces that are produced at a large scale are reproductions, but their initial design is handmade, and there is no serialized process allowed that can take away this truthful spirit to natural drawing, both of the type and the illustration.

A chunky, very commercial Futura Condensed Bold was chosen to complement this handmade approach. The use of this font tempers an otherwise ultra naturalistic view of the restaurant, and offers a commercial counterpoint which combined with the delicacy of watercolour illustrations we hope gives the whole image an edgy mainstream natural feel.

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‘Un año en Pago de los Capellanes’
DVD Packaging

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Andres Sarda: Fashion Love and Art
Book Design

Andres Sarda is a brand of lingerie and swimwear and a pioneer in haute couture and prêt-à-porter in Spain. After 50 years of life, they decided to publish a book containing photos, material fashion, editorials and highlights of its own history. This book consists of chapters, not organized in a linear way, opinion pieces relevant signatures and personal experiences of the designer in these 50 years. They asked us to design a series of pieces for an exhibition and book launch event. All pieces play with the sensuality of nudity in a graphic way, in the invitations and book, the cover paper can be unfolded to see the main image. In the pieces ‘Opi Totem and Bus’ we play more graphically with the number 50 so that it surrounds the picture and interacts with the silhouette of a woman.

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Murmuri
Identity and naming for hotel and restaurants

The identity plays with the repetitive character of the word ‘Murmuri’, using feminine typography but with attitude like the hotel. The graphic result is contemporary but respectful to the 19th century origin of the building. From there and based on that typography the identity of the restaurant and bar were created. The restaurant combines the two M’s and looks like an oriental ideogram, playing with superposition of grids. ‘Bar Marfil’ is the name of the bar and is rescued from a bar in Barcelona from the 50′s–60′s. This place was an icon of glamorous Barcelona. To visualize the identity we used a collage of old pictures saved from that period.

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Blau Restaurant
Menu design

Blau is a Mediterranean cuisine restaurant in Barcelona. For the menus, we based the idea on creating kinetic effects with the patterns inside the shape of the dishes. All the dishes are silkscreened on wood. We used the typeface: Calend (by atipo).

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Andres Sarda
Various Projects

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No Somos Hormigas: We Are No Ants
Book Design

This book dwells on the following idea: as a species, mankind is nowadays better off than ever, but there are certain issues unresolved which we have the obligation to address. It then shows a few initiatives, which are taking place, that to the author’s understanding are heading in the right direction towards social equilibrium and human relation with the environment.

The book is a compilation of strong concepts that are backed up by visual display of data. We had to create a visual language that was engaging enough, strong enough, and vindictive enough, but which kept the positive message that the book provides, while still being true to the statistics that illustrate each concept.

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Arte y Mecenazgo
Type Specimen

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Arte y Mecenazgo
Identity

An art foundation asked us for an identity. This foundation’s aim is to connect collectors, founders, galleries and artists in many different ways. As an important part of this project we created a typeface. The result consisted in designing a classic outline font using a geometric and rational approach often used in Sans Serif outline fonts but never in Serif. Based on the structure of a Didone typeface we designed a display and headline weight that could allow us to compose in a very classical way but with an edge, or be more daring in the composition and typesetting.

Some of the results of the type applied can be seen in these boards as well as a special edition type specimen designed for the board of trustees of this particular foundation. These pages also offer examples of the application of the typographical identity, event invitations and graphics.

A Few Words from the Editor

What better way to kick start the new year, than with a very generous selection of work (as is the SI way) from Mucho a studio that may come as a pleasant surprise to many who may not have been familiar with their work before. Project information and typefaces used are notably absent from today’s feature, but they’re on their way don’t you worry! :)

Big thank you to Pablo, Marc, Ximena and the team for making this feature possible and for supporting SI :)

About the Studio

Founded in 2003 by Marc Català and Pablo Juncadella having worked at Grafica (Madrid/Barcelona) and Pentagram (London) respectively, Mucho is a visual communication and graphics studio based in Barcelona, Spain.

Ideas are at the heart of every project they undertake and all work is done with the intention of it being unique, with a constant effort to avoid repetitive formulas. Mucho values the visual ambition of projects as much as the commercial will, and considers excellence its permanent objective.

The studio specializes in art direction, strategic and corporate identity, editorial design, packaging, graphic communications, digital design and motion graphics for small clients through to large brands.

mucho.ws

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Logo
Since its launch in 2004, the Nooka logo has been increasing in boldness for reasons of legibility. Unlike most corporate logos in which the artwork needs to be legible at 25mm, the Nooka logo needs to be legible at about half that, sometimes less. The solution was two-fold. One—to increase boldness for maximum legibility both small and large sizes, and two—to simplify the letterforms to better express our ethos. Along with these changes, subtle details were also introduced to make the Nooka logotype more visually pleasing.

Aside from the increase in weight, the infinity sign remains a constant in our visual identity – representing the infinite possibilities the future has to offer. We introduced rounded corners on both the “N” and “A” to compliment this shape. The top of the “N” has a 90 degree corner that juxtaposes the round corners and calls point of entry to begin reading the logo. The simplification of the “A” by removing the cross-bar is meant to evoke a future beyond the planet earth.

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Retail/Packaging
Nooka is a global brand. Our products—through wide distribution—must maintain a consistent brand image. We eliminated our existing bulky packaging and introduced a sleek, mylar bag. These mylar bags come in three sizes—which allow universal use for a multitude of products. In addition to eliminating bulk, we stopped using acrylic stands for our watches. Instead we introduced corrugated cardboard pieces which ship flat—and fold when needed to display our watches.

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Stationery
Nooka is a global brand, with a growing number of distributors, business relationships and retailers worldwide. Much thought went into how we can create a system that can function in multiple regions yet maintain Nooka identity. The solution was to stamp paper blanks which could later be customized upon requests. By pre-stamping blanks at a high number, we save time and money by having ready-made materials.
The Nooka system is created of paper stock with our logo stamped in silver foil. The branded stock allows us to create any changes that occur with moving, adding people, different office locations, etc. Communications can then be printed, either digitally or by offset, by following our templates to ensure brand consistency. Like the letterhead, Stamped blanks allow for later customization for our distributors worldwide. This truly universal system allows full customization while maintaining a global identity.

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Brand Guidelines Poster
In place of cumbersome guidelines, we developed a poster which can be distributed digitally as an interactive pdf and can be printed at large ISO sizes. Each image on the pdf is a direct download for all basic brand assets—such as logo, typeface, stationary—to use on their own.

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Internal Documents
Being that Nooka describes it’s working area as a LAB, an internal system was needed to keep consistency as well as create an aesthetic that represents this cconcept. In keeping with efficiency, a grid system was developed which allows easy customization to a wide-array of medias that are requested. These documents are for internal use and distributors, yet allow for a consistent brand aesthetic throughout.

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Application
The Nooka logo will be applied to all new products with sizes ranging from the micro to macro.

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Universal Instruction Manuals
Being a global brand, Nooka is constantly confronted with translating materials for specific languages. One of Nooka’s core values is universal communication. With that value in mind, we went out to create a universal system to be applied to our instruction manuals—one that eliminates most uses of text as well as works for a wide range of products. Using symbols and illustrations, a key was developed to give users a reference when learning how to use their watch.

Based on ISO dimensions, the manuals were developed to be printed as a small manual as well as a large A0 poster. These posters would be used for retail and trade shows to get customers more familiar with Nooka.

Printed in Pantone 812C, these one color manuals are a cheaper solution to a four color process.

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The story of NOOKA
Shot on a 5d and Zazza Slider—this is the story of Nooka—a New York based futurist brand. Founded by artist/designer Matthew Waldman, the ethos of Nooka is universal communication,which guides the creation of products with enhanced functionality that engage the mind as well as the body—mindstyle™.

Most prominently known for its line of timepieces, Nooka has expanded their range, creating a
Mindstyle™ brand with the addition of innovative accessories and a fragrance.

Direction/Editing: Jon Patterson
Filming: Patrick Phillips
Soundtrack: Com Truise

Nooka Design Team

Senior Designer: Jon Patterson
Creative Director: Matthew Waldman
Industrial Design: Alexander Yoo/ Michael Ubbesen
www.nooka.com

A Few Words from the Editor

As I write this there are just 8 days until 2012; I’m sitting here wondering what happened to the rest of 2011! Time really does fly doesn’t it? To end the year right I thought I’d feature something a little different from what I usually feature — different in the sense that whilst it’s still conventional graphic design, it was done completely in-house by the NOOKA Design team as opposed to a rebrand from an external studio/agency.

Lead designer Jon (who just so happens to be a big fan of SI — thank you sir!) got in touch a week ago informing me that NOOKA had just relaunched a rebrand (complete with universal instruction manuals) and had recently finished gathering all the assets for yours truly to review and potentially feature on the site. Bit of a no-brainer really ;)

Thank you once again to Jon and the rest of the cool cats at NOOKA for making this feature possible, and I wish all the lovely readers of SI a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thank you for continuing to support this site (I couldn’t appreciate it more) and I’ll be back in January with your weekly dose of visual crack ;) I also have rather large plans for this site next year so stay tuned…

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Loft 37 – Visual Identity

‘Minimalism, plus some great details’ was the brief from the award winning web agency Loft 37 when they asked for a rejuvenation of their visual identity. BRUNSWICKER delivered a simple design with high-end production to meet the company’s needs.

Printed on: Grey stock with embossed silver-foil logo
Fonts used: Helvetica Neue and Foundry Wilson

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Made – Visual identity

Made is a newly established communication unit, focusing on custom publishing for Scandinavian lifestyle brands. Besides the logo and visual identity the work included stationery and promotional material.

Printed on: White stock mixed with kraft paper
Fonts used: Replica (Lineto)

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The Vision Paper – Art Direction

Art direction of the bi-annual newspaper aimed for fashion buyers and professional’s attending Copenhagen Fashion Week and fashion fairs: CPH Vision and Terminal 2. BRUNSWICKER were tasked with finding a balance with fashion’s lavishness with the industry’s professionalism.

Printed on: 70 g white newspaper stock
Fonts used: Gotham and Austin

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Work&Play – Visual identity

Visual identity for Work&Play that translates the Danish brand’s ambition to reach young and creative customers internationally. Besides logo and identity BRUNSWICKER also created packaging for the brand.

Printed on: White stock mixed with kraft paper and cardboard
Fonts used: Neutraface No. 2

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Alexandra Nora – Visual identity

Visual identity for jewellery brand Alexandra Nora who creates pieces made from African wood and always works from a morbid theme. BRUNSWICKER created a logo, stationery and promotional material for the Danish/South African brand.

Printed on: White stock mixed with kraft paper and snazzybag envelopes
Fonts used: EF Promotor and Helvetica Neue

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byKATO – Visual identity

The Danish furniture design studio byKATO wished to reinforce their Scandinavian roots and a design philosophy called ‘Everyday object solutions’. In this case, BRUNSWICKER created logo, visual identity and the overall creative direction for the brand.

Printed on: Industrial green paper mixed with nature elements.
Fonts used: URW Typewriter

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Fritz Hansen – Art direction

For the Danish furniture company Fritz Hansen, BRUNSWICKER designed ‘Republic’ an amalgamation of brand book and editorial content. The design and content needed to respect the long history of the brand, but also show the innovation within the company. 


Fonts used: Futura and Garamond Pro

About the Studio

Founded in 1998 by art director Mark Brunswicker (born 1968), Brunswicker is an independent, multidisciplinary design studio with a direction that flows seamlessly from commercial projects and magazine design to overall visual brand management.

Based in the heart of Copenhagen, Brunswicker works primarily with art direction, identity design and graphic communication for brands within the fashion, lifestyle, design and media industries. The studio cooperates closely with major players in communication and product development to ensure a streamlined process and a cohesive result.

brunswicker.dk

Thank you once again to Mr Brunswicker for providing the high-res imagery for this feature. Hope you (dear reader) enjoyed this post and have a great a weekend :)

If you’re new here, don’t forget to Subscribe & follow SI on Twitter for your weekly dose of visual crack. ;)

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Home Work Social Visit Listen

Posters x 6
Books x 2

A project to record certain aspects of what was happening in my life over five years. I made lists of where I lived, worked, socialised, traveled to, and what I listened to in that year. I also illustrated detailed maps of places in Scotland, where I’m originally from, that I had visited in those years. The texts and maps were used in various ways to create a series of posters and books. These where shown as an exhibition at Filesharing
in Berlin.

Font: Helvetica Neue, Bold

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You Me Him Her Them Us / In Out Up Down Left Right

Record Sleeves x 2

Font: Helvetica Neue, Medium

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Colouring Numbers

Booklet

As series of extruded number illustrations form multiple graphic shapes between their lines. This became a simple children’s colouring book. As they shapes were filled in with various coloured pencils and pens the booklets took on a further graphic richness.

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4 Fictional

Record Sleeves x 4

Font: Custom

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5 Mylo

Posters x 2

Two posters to celebrate the birth of my son, Mylo. His birthday is on 7/9/06 and the graphic shows his name with the date overprinted. In the second version of the poster his name and the date change position, colour, and being printed either solid or outline.

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One Two Three

Booklets x 2

I printed two versions of a custom typeface in English and German. The text was ascending numbers counting up, one, two, three, etc. This was a simple way to use most of the characters in the typeface with out any specific narrative. The solid version of the typeface was used for the English and the line version for German.

Hector Pottie is name that many of SI’s readers should be familiar with – not only has he worked at Cartlidge Levene for many years, MadeThought, Moving Brands and was the former Creative Director at Marque – but his personal work can be found in at least one design book on your shelf ;)

Today it gives me great pleasure to finally “immortalize” his work online with this special feature showcasing a fine selection of Hector’s personal work from past to present. Some of these pieces date back as early as 2003 and maybe even earlier, nevertheless it’s evident that a lot of craft and consideration went into each piece of work because nothing seems to have aged a day :)

Hector currently doesn’t have site of his own, but you can find him on Twitter and LinkedIn

Big thank you once again to Hector for giving SI the honour of featuring his work online for the first time. It certainly won’t be his last time either… ;)

If you’re new here, don’t forget to Subscribe & follow SI on Twitter for your weekly dose of visual crack. ;)

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Client: Equilibrium
Location: Editions of 100

Latest print produced specially for Editions of 100
A study of Symmetric v’s Asymmetry
Available at www.editionsof100.com

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Client: Edinburgh International Film Festival 2011
Location: Edinburgh

We were approached by the EIFF to create an identity for their annual film festival – the longest continually running film festival in the world.

We were interested in creating a visual link between the medium of film and the various pieces of festival communication. To this end we based our idea on a film-strip. A single typographic stack of information is repeated with the word ‘FILM’ bleeding off the edges. The condensed type is inspired by classic 50′s film posters whilst the word ‘FILM’ is rendered by simulating handwritten editing notes on celluloid film. The identity will appear throughout Edinburgh during the festival and applied in various formats.

Primary Typeface:
Block Gothic Condensed Extra Bold

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Client: All My Friends
Location: London

Our concept was based around the idea of analogue v’s digital or perhaps more accurately; bespoke v’s mass-produced. To communicate this idea we came up with a two-part identity consisting of a bespoke element, represented by a set of three logos applied using a rubber stamp. And a mass-produced element – a strict grid based typographic layout.

When combined the imperfections of the rubber stamp contrast strongly with the utilitarian form-like texts. Allowing us to communicate the individual personalities within the collective whilst creating a uniform and consistent brand. We created a suite of stationery and website

www.allmyfriendscollective.com

Primary Typeface:
Geometric Slabserif 703

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Client: COOLOUS
Location: US / China

COOLOUS produce cool cases for the iphone and ipad. They approached us with only their existing logo as a starting point. From this we developed a suite of assets based around the ‘dot’ device. Ergonomic forms were created to lend a tactile quality to the brand. These influenced everything from packaging to merchandising. An understated and clean use of colour, typography, shape and texture combine to communicate core values of innovation, design and quality.

The project went on to incorporate packaging as we were asked to create a range of solutions for COOLOUS’ cases and accessories. This was followed by an e-commerce site which combines all elements and brings the product to market.

Primary Typeface:
Akkurat

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Client: THE GUILD
Location: London

Our brief was to create a unique logo made up of parts – this was primarily to communicate the idea of different elements coming together. Such as creative individuals and different disciplines. In addition, we were interested in exploring the visual language of vintage television graphics and typography, specifically those found in monochromatic test cards. This allowed us to create a link with the animation and effects aspects of the business. The identity was applied to a suite of stationery and website homepage with an animated version of the logo to follow shortly.

Primary Typeface:
Gotham

After a “technical” mishap last week which left SI “naked” of any new features (for 7 days), we’re back with some new visual crack for you to feast your eyes upon starting with this sharp collection of recent projects courtesy of my good friend Daniel @ Glasgow based design studio BERG.

If you’d like to see more work from BERG, I recommend you check out this previous feature I did back in December last year: BERG – it’s full of great stuff.

One last thing, make sure you visit SI on Friday for that big feature that was supposed to happen last week…

If you’re new here, don’t forget to Subscribe, FFFFOUND! & follow SI on Twitter for your weekly dose of visual crack. ;)

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TEDxPortland

Client: TEDxPortland
Agency: Wieden+Kennedy
Creative direction: Susan Hoffman, Renny Gleeson
Art direction and design: Sarah Hollowood, Steve Denekas, Ken Berg, Derek Kim
Studio managers: Michael Frediani, Lisa Reinhardt, Lis Moran, Shari Eiesland
Production: Ademar Matinian, Walker Cahall
Photography: Kyle Pero
Interactive and technology direction: Dom Murphy, Igor Clark
UX design: Pete Hensing
Interactive production: Aubrey Dean
Interactive development and design: Josh Perez, Jason Strand, Mirtho Prepont
Motion and audio design: Peiter Hergert, Masataka Odaka

TEDxPortland approached Wieden+Kennedy to create a unique and memorable identity for their event, the first of its kind in Portland. W+K Studio designers Sarah Hollowood, Steve Denekas, Ken Berg, along with myself were tasked to art direct and design their entire identity from scratch. Our brief was simple: Crossroads. We decided to use a lenticular-effect as the unifying aesthetic for the identity. It was a simple and effective solution to our brief; it uses the motion of the lenticular to create a visual crossroad. The adaptability and versatility of the aesthetic we developed allowed us to easily translate it into different mediums ranging from print, to interactive and motion design.

Font used: DIN

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Stanford University

Client: Department of Medicine at Stanford University
Art direction and design: Derek Kim
Photography: Qiao Lin
Production: Fran Bittakis, Nick Bittakis

The Medicine 2.0 Fall Conference 2011 will be hosted in Silicon Valley, home to many of the world’s preeminent technology companies such as Google, Apple, Facebook, Yahoo, Intel, and others. Rather than focus on the presentation of research findings and scientific data, the Summit will present forecasts from luminaries—from e-patients and bloggers to executives and industry insiders—and ignite discussions about the development and use of technologies being built by academia and industry that will shape Medicine 2.0 in 2011 and beyond.

I was approached by Stanford University in order to create a poster that would create a greater awareness for this congress. My approach consisted of a simple depiction of connected patients with doctors and how this immediate connection could become much closer with the help of social media.

Font used: Helvetica Neue

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Departamento

Client: Departamento
Creative direction and editorial design: You vs. Me
Art direction and design: Derek Kim
Production: Gordon Hewitt

Departamento is a magazine centered on design, society and art. Several concept issues were created for their first editorial run. I was approached to concept an identity that would emphasize the creative nature of this magazine with intricate layouts and a flexible grid system. Therefore, the Departamento identity follows a playful aesthetic, where the main logotype is always able to be broken in different ways. This would allow designers to freely manipulate the identity into their own hands. Additional elements for promotional purposes were designed using a similar “broken-grid” system.

Font used: OCR B Regular

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Grafik Magazine

Client: Grafik Magazine
Co-editors: Caroline Roberts, Angharad Lewis
Photography: Derek Kim
Art direction and design: Michael Bojkowski, Derek Kim
Editorial design: Michael Bojkowski
Production: Deux Ponts

Grafik Magazine approached Michael Bojkowski and I to collaborate on an issue centered on design education. After several rounds of brainstorming, we ended up with a simple representation of books stacked upon each other and using a mix of graphic and photographic elements.

Font used: Neuzeit Textbook, BP Romain

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Kenya Hara

Agency: Wieden+Kennedy
Creative direction: John C. Jay
Art direction and design: Derek Kim
Production: Walker Cahall

Kenya Hara, MUJI’s design director, visited Portland and agency Wieden+Kennedy on May 2011. I was approached to design a poster in order to commemorate his visit to “Stumptown”. I tried to be as careful as possible when designing these posters as I was designing them for someone whom I admire to great heights. In addition to the main poster, two other supplemental posters were created as a personal homage for Hara-san.

Font used: Sabon and リュウミン (Morisawa Ryumin) Pro

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Canción Magazine

Client: Self-initiated
Art direction and design: Derek Kim

Canción Magazine is yet to be published and is an on-going personal effort. The magazine aims to cover the relationships between graphic designers and the music they listen to. I plan on launching this magazine sometime over the next 2 years and it will be completely free of charge.

Font used: Sabon

http://www.networkosaka.com/

I’m sure you’ll agree that Mr. Network Osaka AKA Derek Kim is producing some really interesting work (to say the least ;-) taking traditional modernist design principles and fusing them with his own contemporary sensibility. With clients including Nike, Esquire, Grafik and regular work with Wieden+Kennedy, the portfolio this “artist pretending to be a designer” is only getting better with age and it gives me great pleasure to feature a handful of Network Osaka‘s work in high-res; None of that, “clicking the expand image button on Flickr only to find that the image is 500px wide” ;)

www.networkosaka.com

A very big thank you once again to Derek for making this feature possible and for being a big supporter of SI :)

If you’re new here, don’t forget to Subscribe, FFFFOUND! & follow SI on Twitter for your weekly dose of visual crack. ;)

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THE VINYL FACTORY
The Vinyl Factory is a music and arts enterprise curating exhibitions and producing limited edition vinyl packaging in collaboration with artists and designers. Combining a logotype with a series of experimental mark making techniques Village Green created a simple identity system that is used across a number of
promotions and applications.

Fonts: Albertus

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NIKE USA
Images of Lebron James commissioned for Nike USA. These collages reflect the flash heavy, spontaneous nature of the photography using folded paper to create naive yet imposing imagery.

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MARK RONSON ‘VERSION’ CAMPAIGN
Posters were designed, printed, pasted and ripped before being re-photographed to create a visual language for the Mark Ronson’s ‘Version’ campaign. Original photography by David Hughes.

Fonts: Garage Gothic, Weidemann

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FAB AFRICA
Fab Africa make a line of home furnishings and clothing based on the use of authentic African fabrics. These illustrations were created to capture the bold and vibrant nature of traditional batik process used for the fabrics.

Village Green were featured way back in 2009 so it would be an understatement to call this feature long overdue ;) With that said, much of VG’s recent work resonates with me for effortlessly mixing restraint (which I love) with hand-made elements. Up until this point, I couldn’t name a site that featured their work at this kind of scale online, so someone (namely me) had to do it ;)

For those of you that don’t know, Village Green is a creative studio and workshop whose approach combines intuition, innovation and research underpinned by clear ideas and meticulous executions. Their disciplines include branding, graphic art, image making, art direction and moving image.

www.villagegreenstudio.com

Big thank you once again to Paul and Andrew @ Village Green for making this feature possible.

If you’re new here, don’t forget to Subscribe, FFFFOUND! & follow SI on Twitter for your weekly dose of visual crack. ;)

During these Summer months things tend to get a little slower around here – studios go on holiday which generally means less updates; but you now what? Sometimes having less updates makes you appreciate the work even more especially if that work was designed by none other than North, a studio revered and respected for producing exceptional, thought-provoking design.

Now North have been perceived to carry an air of mystery and intrigue about them – they’re one of the hardest working studios in design, yet they generally prefer to stay under the publicity radar. With that said, I’m absolutely honored to be able to publish an Exclusive/Offical North feature for the very first time online. As Stephen (from North) explains:

In addition to these photographs of the book, the folks at North were kind enough to send in additional images that reference the other work they have been producing for Fourth Floor over the past 20 years. A sincere thank you goes out to Jeremy, Sean and Stephen for sharing all these images and for making this feature possible. :)

If you’re unfamiliar with the work of North I definitely suggest taking a look at this gargantuan feature that was posted back in January.

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Max Chocolatier – Project Notes
The process involved in creating the confectionery is unique, and the result will exceed anything you have ever tasted: at Max you will be savouring some of the best chocolate in the world.

Max Chocolatier offers a feast for all the senses. Your nose experiences the scent of truly great chocolate as you approach the shop. There, you can witness the care with which the staff create the products. Opening the exquisite packaging adds to the anticipation. Then, as the chocolate touches your tongue, it’s as if you were tasting chocolate for the very first time.

Fonts used: Logotype: Custom drawn / Primary typeface: Bodoni BE and Flama

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Mikael Simpson – Project Notes
Mikael Simpson is regarded as one of the most innovative artists in the field of Danish electronic music. The album is very dark and experimental with rhythmic melodies. Mikael Simpson does the vocals on all the tracks, and he has a strange voice that’s both eerie and uplifting at the same time, paired with dark orchestral melodies.

Fonts used: Logotype: Custom drawn / Primary typeface: Galaxie Polaris

Photography: Birds + Thailand: Mikkel Bache

As promised, here is part 2 of September Industry’s Muggie Ramadani Special. If, for some profound reason you missed the first installment of this series (complete with bio and mini-interview) you can check it out in all its high-res glory here ;)

As always, big thank you to Muggie for making this feature possible and I hope you (dear reader) enjoyed today’s helping of visual crack ;)

muggieramadani.com

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