Text: The Poetry of the Commonplace
Posted: February 12, 2019 Filed under: Texts | Tags: Articles on graphic Design Comments Off on Text: The Poetry of the Commonplace 
Jack Self (JS) is a London-based architect and writer. He is the director of the REAL Foundation and Editor-in-Chief of the Real Review, a magazine that explores, through a variety of topics and lenses, what it means to live today. The text below is an excerpt taken from a 10,000-word transcript of an hour-long conversion between Richard Baird (RB) and Jack Self. This covered architecture, graphic design, publishing and the review.
RB—I spoke to Jack Self about my desire to create an unexpected material object from the work I do for BP&O. That I did not know what form it would take, although the LogoArchive zine is now folded into that project. I would use words like performance or sculpture when speaking to people about it, to move the conversation beyond, say, an annual; a common suggestion (although it was always going to be material) as a way to draw people into a worldview. This is what Jack had to say about that and how Real Review creates new relationships with space and develops a dialogue between text and image, outside of their literal reading, by way of a vertical fold.
360ME, Montgomery+Evelyn by Studio Makgill
Posted: March 13, 2019 Filed under: Fitness, Health and Beauty, Packaging Reviews Comments Off on 360ME, Montgomery+Evelyn by Studio MakgillOpinion by Richard Baird
360ME is the first range of “life-ready” “Mood Nutrition” from Montgomery+Evelyn a new nutritional supplement company. Each of the four products focus on an individual and singular benefit with each capsule providing exactly what the body needs without having to purchase multiple products. M+E intends to bring a new level of quality and clarity of communication to a complicated nutrition market.
Working with founder, Evie Montgomery, Studio Makgill developed positioning, brand values, product architecture and packaging design, with their strategy emerging from the clarity in Evie’s approach, a beautiful and simple intersection of clinical science and human experience. This was expressed through visual identity by way of visible grid, bright coloured dots and a neutral sans-serif.
The Best of BP&O — February 2019
Posted: March 2, 2019 Filed under: The Best of BP&O Comments Off on The Best of BP&O — February 2019Selected by Richard Baird.
Five projects that stood out in February and have made it into BP&O’s Best Of Series. Between them, these typically balance a strong singular concept or an appropriate confluence of ideas with a compelling visual character and clear communicative intention that appropriately play with form, colour, type and layout, as well as material, texture, image and print finish.
BP&O, in this end of month review, tries to recognise both the smart use of small budgets—those that channel spending into the most appropriate assets—and those projects with a broad and holistic quality, establishing a continuity (conceptual and/or visual) across multiple touch points. Many of the projects share a concise aesthetic expression, yet there is nuance and strategic weight to these, so do click through and read more about each of these.
Alongside reviews BP&O introduced a new text series, the second of which The Beauty Of The Commonplace, is an excerpt taken from a 10,000-word transcript of an hour-long conversion between Richard Baird and Jack Self.
Åhléns by Happy FB
Posted: February 25, 2019 Filed under: Logo Reviews, Retail | Tags: Art Direction, Bag Design, Brand Identity, Brand Identity Reviews, Branding, Branding Blog, Branding Reviews, Design Blog, Design For Print, Design News, Design Opinion, Design Reviews, From Scandinavia, Graphic Design, Graphic Design Blog, Logo Design & Branding Blog, Logo Design Inspiration, Logo Design Resource, Logo Designs, Logo Opinion, Logotypes, Retail Logos, Still Life in Brand Identity Design, Swedish, Swedish Design, The Best Brand Identities of 2019, The Best Logo Designs of 2019, The Very Best of 2019, Typography, Wordmark Design Comments Off on Åhléns by Happy FBOpinion by Richard Baird
Åhléns began in 1899 as a small mail-order business. Aside from it being one of the oldest it has also grown to become one of the largest retail chains in Sweden. By carefully collating a variety of items across brands and price categories, the retailer maintains its relevance today, understanding and responding to the many ways in which its customers have changed over its long history. Happy FB, the Scandinavian design studio behind Åhléns new visual identity, puts it simply “to Åhléns’ urbane and socially conscious patrons, shopping and sustainability are not contradictions. Inspiration and trends do not equate to use and discard. Premium can be inexpensive and cheap doesn’t necessarily mean a drop in quality”. The retailer’s new visual identity expresses this by taking the well-established Åhléns wordmark and single red and builds this out into a range of changing graphic expressions, imbuing a variety of touchpoints, material and digital, with more character whilst retaining a recognisable immediacy through simplicity.
