There’s no denying the proliferation of all things that the more curmudgeonly crowds might deem ‘woowoo’ over recent years. Crystals, gong baths, singing bowls, silent retreats, tarot et al were once firmly languishing on the fringes of society, and are now de rigeur among the Stoke Newington set and TikTok classes alike. This rise in self-help-led esotericism has run concurrently...
With trend-forecasting agency WGSN identifying ‘multi-species homes’ as one of the ‘top trends of 2024’, the global market for pet products is project to hit £28.75 billion by 2025 – and this excludes the food category. Even furniture design is increasingly influenced by the penchants of our four-legged friends. Catering to this pet-first design movement, Liberty London, Prada, Louis Vuitton...
It can’t be easy designing the identity for a brand or company that’s hard to define, or which isn’t easily explained by that ‘new product, familiar ideas’ trope – the sorts of things described as ‘Like Tinder, but for cats!’ or ‘CityMapper for life decisions’, or ‘Uber for people who want to try dogging but can’t drive’ (if any investor...
In recent years, we’ve seen artisanal ice cream brands make an obvious departure from the maximalist, saccharine branding that their mainstream counterparts are so known for. In particular, the typeface-heavy, superimposed ice cream tubs of US-based brands have become a benchmark for exactly the kind of branding that more gourmet confectioners are keen to avoid. While Ben & Jerry’s iconic...
As well as being a coastal city in south west Italy (formed in 1923 by none other than Benito Mussolini), Imperia is a pasta machine company that was formed from a ‘little artisan workshop’ in 1932. Imperia soon began to distribute pasta machines around the world; mainly catering to the US’ large Italian community. From its plant in Sant’Ambrogio, Turin,...
We’ve covered no shortage of work by Pentagram in the past, most recently Cohere but spanning projects for London Fashion Week, NYC Parks, National History Museum and more. This is the first time, however, that we’ve looked at a project by new-ish New York office partner Andrea Trabucco-Campos and his team – and it’s safe to say, we’re impressed. Graphic...
Branding a film production company is a delicate business. On the one hand, you need branding that can match and even enhance the quality of the films being produced, but on the other, you need something that doesn’t distract from the work or compete with it. Film is an intrinsically creative visual medium, and building a framework to support it...
There have been some brilliant logo designs inspired by the very buildings they represent. The Centre Pompidou, for instance, bears a powerfully stark logo that’s been largely unchanged since it was first created in the 1970s: six black stripes crossed by two zigzags representing the site’s ‘caterpillar’ escalator, one of the most famous parts of Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers’...
The Royal Television Society’s annual two-day event at The University of Cambridge brings together leading television industry bigwigs to ponder the present and future of the small screen. This year, over 350 luminaries descended on Cambridge to contend with such weighty topics as ‘the future of media, the impact of AI, and the role of opinion in news’. Quite a...
As recognisable brands go, LEGO is up there with the Nike swooshes and McGolden Arches of this world. Pretty much anything in that red and yellow lockup with vaguely Stay Puft-esque lettering (naturally there’s a LEGO version of that exact sailor) instantly says ‘LEGO’ – even when what it really says is, unlawfully, ‘Lepin’; or somehow scraping into legality, ‘Xinh’;...
It’s often the launch of major charity rebrands that puts the gulf between how the design world views something, and how the rest of the world might, into sharp relief. Countless headlines abound bemoaning the £££millions ‘spent on a new logo’, as if that’s just about all there is to it, and now the children/animals/elderly etc will directly suffer as...
Barnardo’s is the UK’s largest children’s charity, and it undoubtedly does much good in the world. However, its history up to this point is also littered with uncomfortable controversies. Certainly, the most outlandish transgressions are concentrated in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. Founder Thomas John Barnardo was taken to court 88 times for kidnapping children (or ‘philanthropic abductions’, as old...