Santander takes over

"The bank says that rebranding will cost it £12m, although this does not include any of the cost of advertising or expenses. The savings by integrating the businesses has been estimated by the bank as £180m."

So Santander wants to bowl over Bradford and Bingley, Alliance and Leicester and Abbey and there's much talk about why and will it pay off? For me it has to be a no-brainer. Santander wants to consolidate (ok) and I think they realise now is the time as people have lost faith in bank names all over but especially the UK. I'm sure there are high level strategic reasons for repositioning services and products and giving a Europe-wide portfolio for customers but really, are they risking anything? This article says some customers will be lost but to which other trustworthy bank? Are there any?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8070335.stm

Kuniyoshi exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts

Kuniyoshi

From the Arthur R. Miller Collection

21 March—7 June 2009

The Royal Academy of Arts presents an exhibition on one of the greatest Japanese print artists, Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861). Featuring over 150 works, the exhibition presents Kuniyoshi as a master of imaginative design. It reveals the graphic power and beauty of his prints across an unprecedented range of subjects highlighting his ingenious use of the triptych format.

http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/kuniyoshi/

An oldie but a goodie

Cropmarks xtra for Freehand

Ok so a bit of geekiness here... I like Freehand. Ok, yes I know it's no longer supported and Adobe make Illustrator so why bother? Well it's like a comfy old pair of slippers: feels great and does the job but maybe not as good looking as the new pair you got for Christmas.

What a palaver to sort out cropmarks though! You know, you set up some artwork; it's all beautiful; you have to manually add in cropmarks (Acrobat can do this sometimes depending on the version you have). Not anymore! I found (a rather old-but hey, so is Freehand) xtras plug in that Boris Jerenec has developed which simply sits in your xtras folder and adds another easy to use cropmark-making tool! Thanks Boris and here's the link to his site:

Cropmarks tool download.

Camcreative Networking

I always used to think networking was a great way of getting business. But now I don't think it is. Networking is a great way to extend your (wait for it) network. More often than not I'd find myself at networking events where there was a glut of suppliers with not many potential clients in sight. Sure I might be going to the wrong networking events but even so I think there is value in this. 

Camcreative is a bunch of creative professionals who get together frequently to chat and keep in touch. This is very valuable to me: keeping in touch with what's happening in creative terms, with the industry and with client industries. A lot can be gauged from chatting to contemporaries in a relaxed atmosphere over a beer. In addition to this Camcreative features a guest speaker each month who brings something useful and interesting to the discussion platform.

I don't go to Camcreative expecting to find new clients but I do find like minded creatives and we can discuss what's afoot in the industry.

Here's the Meetup page.

Here's the webpage.

New ways of working

We want everything these days. We want everything, anywhere and NOW. Which is why computer manufacturer's like Sony are making small, thin, but fairly powerful and certainly stylish laptops like the P series. Surf anywhere and do anything but beware...this is no netbook claim Sony!

"Once we say it's a netbook people think that it's cheap and lousy - we want stylish and cool," Sony Australia's VAIO marketing manager, Kent Tanigaki, said.

Don't worry though, Sony remains stylish and fashionable encouraging you to "make a statement wherever you go" with their natty different colours: onyx black, garnet red, emerald green and crystal white.

Can graphic design make you happy?

Intriguing look at the relationship of our state of mind with our designed environment by Stefan Sagmeister.

Pepsi-giving you more than a drink in a can

QR codes (Quick Response) have been taken up by Pepsi making it the first time this technology is widely used in the UK. The QR has already reached a type of cult status in Japan where it was invented and uses a type of barcode technology printed onto products which can be swiped by a mobile phone giving additional product specifications or competition information. 

Pepsi are rolling out the QR codes on their Pepsi Max products as part of a renewed Mobile marketing campaign showing that they are well ahead of the game in the QR and aiming at early adopters. Check out this article on QR codes.

http://www.pepsi.co.uk/QRSteps.aspx

Aston Martin designs Routemaster

Thank God for that! The Aston Martin/Foster pitch has won through and they will be in charge of redesigning the beloved London Routemaster bus. Why the relief? Well if you take a look at one of the other designs that was in the running by Capoco design you'll see not so much a new design as a redesign. The losing Capoco design was said to combine " the best of the old with the best of the new" but to me it looks like a compromise botch job. And so thank god the AM/F design won (see opposite). This winning design may not look like the Routemaster but I don't think it should (too much)! It should recreate the feelings we had about that lovely old bus without making simply an updated version. I want to think quirky, particular and peculiar when I see the new design and that's what it does! Simply beefing up the old Routemaster look seems, to me, pointless and a bit of an insult really. Do they really think we want to see the classic design reworked? Not really-a rework is not good enough. A new design is needed which shows a certain classiness and identity for London and the brand of Britain, which I think this new design does.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7790082.stm

Crunchy sales

So a main trend in the marketing press these days is the discussion as to whether flash sales will pose any long term threat to the business. Debenhams, Marks & Spencer and BHS all announced sales in their stores recently and analysts worry that not only will this give just a temporary boost in profit but that long term consumers will see the retailers in a different way, damaging their brand position.

Discount stores threatened Tesco's 30% lead in the grocery market and replied by introducing the Discount Brand. This, claims the Fool, has brought in 300, 000 new customers but The Independent recently reported on the company's worst sales in the UK for 16 years, so maybe things are catching up with Tesco.

My question is, though, what else can be done? These companies are attempting to stimulate spending in a rather flat economy and hopefully long term marketing budgets and planning won't suffer for it. this will be key to keep companies afloat during the difficult times-creative and canny PR and marketing to help sell products and ultimately contribute to a bounce back in the economy.

Anyone Can Do It!

Anyone Can Do It by Duncan Bannatyne.

An inspiring read, this book not only plots the early days of Bannatyne's life through to his Den days on tv but gives a useful insight into how he made his (many) millions. The title is called 'Anyone Can Do It' but I'm not so sure that anyone can do it after having read this. There are a few necessary traits. For example Bannatyne has a cast-iron determination and ability to deal with lots of complex issues happening simultaneously-something even he identifies as crucial in his success. Of particular insterest to me was a story he tells of trying to help some directors to gear up their company only to find that they didn't have the desire for the wealth. This hasn't been a problem for Bannatyne! It seems that he's also driven by a sense of justice-or maybe it's a sense of injustice: striving to make his business the right way and feeling proud about this. Not scared to shop anyone else who's breaking the law or trying it on with him. Don't get me wrong I reckon this guy is hard to deal with for all the above reasons but I kinda like this. It seems you'd know where you were with him.  

I think I'd like the guy and I liked this story: it's fresh and frank- a straightforward guy who's made it big from his own hard work and bloody mindedness. Well done! And thanks for inspiring me to get off my bum and make some decisions...

Why we design

Or at least why Philippe Starck designs. Pretty entertaining and some gems of ideas about 'high' design within a business and social context.

Fonts in movies

Here's a neat little look at font styles in the movies.

Pop-up quiz on BBC

Sat nav generation, symbols and interface

As satellite navigation systems are becoming cheaper and therefore everyone is buying them up, it's interesting to stop and consider what this is doing to our driving experience along with the whole idea of user interaction whilst driving.

We tend to trust machines to work the way they are intended. Even more so do we trust computers! Ah yes, the summum of intelligent design, conceived to make out lives easier which is exactly what sat nav does, doesn't it? Well mostly yes it can alleviate the stress of navigating alone whilst driving (or even the stress of being navigated by a nitwit with a map sat next to you!) but occasionally sat nav goes wrong. Furthermore it seems to be sucking out all of our sense of direction by relying on these machines too much. Worse than this it can lead to annoying and inappropriate shortcuts like the one which has led to a cottage being driven into 15 times in the last year by lorries who have blindly followed the sat nav instructions.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7588566.stm

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1583776/Satnav-takes-Earl's-daughter-to-wrong-Stamford-Bridge.html

Design, camouflage, dinosaurs and exams.

One of the main functions of visual perception is to detect objects in the environment as either a potential mate, predator or perhaps lunch (Scientific American p18. V Ramachandran, D Rogers-Ramachandran). So determining what is not part of the scenery has been vital in the past in order for us to pass on our genes to our lucky predecessors. What use is it in modern life though? I'm not in the habit of popping out to the high street to bag a mammoth or flee from roaming tyrannosaurus rexs (!) on my way home from work.

What's the use of it now in getting our food or our mate then? Well in design terms it means that when we engage with visual communication we tend to see contrasted items much better. It jumps out at us as we say to ourselves, "Woah...is that a dinosaur?!". Use your head, designers!

No point using low contrast text on designs...

When I was doing my O levels the dreaded exam papers were black text on yellow paper. Oh boy did that strike fear in our hearts. We only had to glimpse a registration plate to give us the shivers! Apparently though this is the best contrast for legibility. So I guess we should thank the exam board for making it like this!

If you need some tools to ensure your website text has sufficient contrast for good legibility check out this article which gives some web tools to use.

What is YouTube for?

Check this out to get an anthropological take...(thanks to DB for highlighting this)

'An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube' by Michael Wesch

Identity...

Interesting presentation here on Identity! (Thanks Phil) The style of presentation is great too...

Check out the nervous compere though in his geeky shirt :)

Follow up presentation here

Slutbucks?

It's amazing what people can read into symbols isn't it? For example we all know that certain images are meant to be ambiguos. Take for example my wife and my mother-in-law. Actually please don't take them too far as Im rather attached to both of them...

Here we can see a cleverly designed visual pun.

On the other hand the new Starbucks logo is, well, just ok...I mean nothing special, but if you are a particular sort of Christian it seems that the following (on left) is offensive!

This article says that a US Christian group hs said the logo's character has her legs "spread like a prostitute... ".

Interestingly the founder of Starbucks has said of the logo (in general terms) "bare-breasted and Rubenesque; [it] was supposed to be as seductive as coffee itself".

It's true that the tails are spread but it would never occur to me that this mermaid's tails were sexually enticing me. What a load of old rubbish!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7427105.stm

Are your Hands giving the right impression?

This is why creating the right look and feel for businesses is important...

"Fidgety, ink-stained and with nails bitten to the quick, Gordon Brown's hands are fast becoming a visible symbol of the pressures he is under."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7402803.stm

Responsible design 1

It was a fine April morning and my little one and I decided to go for a stroll, fulfilling her burning desire to go to a playground ("pingownd daddy, pingownd!). We stopped briefly to post a letter and I was left aghast at the state of British design. It's something I've noticed many times before and always tutted at, but this jarring image stopped me in my tracks today. Maybe it was the juxtaposition of a beautiful spring morning with the visual house of horrors I saw before me. What was this horror of horrors? None other than our great British pillar box.

WHAT? I hear you gasp. He's crazy. This is an iconic design! Almost as iconic as the red Gilbert Scott designed telephone box. WHAT ARE YOU THINKING LITTLEFAIR? Well, I shall explain. The beautiful Georgian pillar box is not that which is offending my sensibilities but rather the monstrosity welded to the side of it. Is this the height of well integrated British design? Don't get me wrong- I'm no pre-raphaelite revivalist who swans around in a smoking jacket bemoaning the good old days when a pint of beer cost 2d and everything was SO much better when things were made of wood. No. We need to embrace modernity and our ever evolving lives and find interesting and innovative ways of moving forward. And sticking a big red box on the side of a (probably) antique piece of (functional but attractive) street furniture is not the way forward!

I have sympathy for the posties. They do a good job and they're probably not paid a great deal. Our postie is a family man who does his job and later in the day I see him with his kids doing dad stuff. So I don't want to burden his round- of course he should have a secure place to leave some of his deliveries so as not to be weighed down. But can you imagine the design brief conversation before this was implemented?

Big wig: "We need some storage areas to integrate onto existing pillar boxes for posties. Let's have a look a the designs"

Designer (mechanical, no doubt): "Well. I've come up with this box. It has a lock and we simply weld it to the side of the post boxes."

BW: " Hmm, yes I like it. How much does it cost? What are your fees?"

D: " Oh a lot less than an industrial designer's. All that marketing bullshit - you don't need that"

BW: "Yes you're right but, somehow this box on the side....it needs something else. What do you think?"

D: "Hmmm. How about if I add a radius along the top edge. Give it like an arched roof"

BW: "Will it add cost?"

D: "no, no."

BW "...... Yeah. I like. I like. Implement this and make 25,000 units. Well done. We also need some stand alone boxes to set up. Make them grey and ugly"

Ug.

I guess these boxes need to look fairly industrial so as not to attract attention of thugs and vandals, but really........What have they done to our heritage. This is my (and yours) cultural inheritance that they are tampering with! (I know they probably own these boxes and can probably do what they like with them. But aren't they listed? Should they be? This link tells how they are protected by English heritage)

These people have a design responsibility. If you pay in the design stage for a bit of creative thinking rather, chances are you'll come up with a great looking integrated design which may not cost as much as the off the shelf monstrosity. Designers also have a responsibility to solve the problem fully. That's what designers do- they look at problems and try and find solutions. If they are working with an enlightened client then a full range of ideas can be explored and market tested to see if this is the real deal: the right design solution. But the designer also has to advise on this process. Often clients can't comprehend the long term (and sometimes strategic) value of design input at the beginning of the project and may need to be convinced. The designer has a responsibility too- it's not just the penny pinching client. I've been put under immense budgetary limits in the past and this only makes me more resolved to think about the problem fully in order to come up with a solution within the full design brief: aesthetic, functional and financial.