Hasta La Ideas

After years of perfecting their curvy and colorful packaging solo, our friends at Method are exploring the designer collaboration route. The planet-friendly company’s debut partner is Irish-born, London-based Orla Kiely. A special fall collection of Method hand washes and home cleaners features four of the designer’s signature stylized prints that in turn inspired the products’ unique fragrances. The coral-colored floral print inspired a primrose scent, which Method describes as “an updated twist on a classic rose,” while the green stem print smells like bay leaf, and the multicolored “acorn cup” design is matched with a fragrance called vanilla chai. Kiely’s pear pattern led Method to a clean and gingery aroma that will be available in hand wash, cleaning spray, and dish soap. Look for the bright bottles (recyclable and made with 100% recycled plastic) in Target stores nationwide next month. Meanwhile, Method has already started to roll out the limited-edition line on its website.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

On-screen animations form a major part of the presentation of London 2012, with each venue having its own programme of films created by LOCOG and Crystal CG

What strikes you about the presentation of the London 2012 Olympics (I was lucky enough to visit yesterday) is its use of broadcast metaphors, with each event presented like some kind of live TV show complete with pounding music. Even the language used reflects this – at the start of yesterday morning’s athletics we were welcomed by Ben Shepherd (A TV host) to “this morning’s show”. Shepherd then went on to interview actor Patrick Stewart before handing over to the commentators who provide voice over throughout the session.

A key part of this presentation packaging is the use of moving image material on the venues’ big screens. Each venue has its own ‘producer’ who can choose from a variety of elements provided by LOCOG’s sports presentation team and Crystal CG, the Games’ official supplier of animated moving image material.

Crystal has created introductory films for each venue, using the venue’s specific colour scheme. This, for example, is the film used at the North Greenwich Arena to introduce gymnastics

While, as we posted earlier this week, this is the Velodrome film, using a Chemical Brothers track written specifically for the Games

As well as the intro films, Crystal has produced a suite of other options for the venue producers. Many of them feature a 2012 ‘avatar’ – a humanoid figure created in 3D using motion capture for the various sports. Here’s a film for the athletics stadium

And this for the archery

The avatar (designed by LOCOG and animated by Crystal) also turned up in the video for Muse’s official Olympic song

At the venues, other elements are used to whip up the crowd – here’s a shot of the beach volleyball big screen in action

While this ‘clapometer’ video urges crowds to up the volume

And this sequence was used at the start of the cycling to suggest the build up of tension

While other sequences help explain the sports and the action to come, such as this for mountain biking

Crystal have also produced fly-throughs of London for use by the BBC, NBC and other broadcasters

The Olympics-as-game-show element to the 2012 Games might not be to everyone’s tatse but the crowd I was part of yesterday certainly seemed to be enjoying it. Apparently, the levels have been turned up or down depending on the venue and sport – sedate and fairly downbeat for Wimbledon, turned up to 11 for the beach volleyball.

But there has been a lot of imagination and innovation used in the way in which the big screens are used to both inform and entertain crowds. The films also illustrate the importance of a solid visual language at the heart of everything (even if it is not to all readers’ tastes) and the sheer scale of the visual communication involved in a modern Olympiad.

Related Reading
See our blog on the look of the games here

And our interview with LOCOG head of marketing Greg Nugent here

CR for the iPad
Read in-depth features and analysis plus exclusive iPad-only content in the Creative Review iPad App. Longer, more in-depth features than we run on the blog, portfolios of great, full-screen images and hi-res video. If the blog is about news, comment and debate, the iPad is about inspiration, viewing and reading. As well as providing exclusive, iPad-only content, the app will also update with new content throughout each month. Try a free sample issue here

CR in Print
The August Olympic Special issue of Creative Review contains a series of features that explore the past and present of the Games to mark the opening of London 2012: Adrian Shaughnessy reappraises Wolff Olins’ 2012 logo, Patrick Burgoyne talks to LOCOG’s Greg Nugent about how Wolff Olins’ original brand identity has been transformed into one consistent look for 2012, Eliza Williams investigates the role of sponsorship by global brands of the Games, Mark Sinclair asks Ian McLaren what it was like working with Otl Aicher as a member of his 1972 Munich Olympics design studio, Swiss designer Markus Osterwalder shows off some of his prize Olympic items from his vast archive, and much more. Plus, Rick Poynor’s assessment of this year’s Recontres d’Arles photography festival, and Michael Evamy on the genius of Yusaku Kamekura’s emblem for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

Please note, CR now has a limited presence on the newsstand at WH Smith high street stores (although it can still be found in WH Smith travel branches at train stations and airports). If you cannot find a copy of CR in your town, your WH Smith store or a local independent newsagent can order it for you. You can search for your nearest stockist here. Alternatively, call us on 020 7970 4878 to buy a copy direct from us. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 970 4878 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.

We’ve seen some pretty spectacular thesis projects by up and coming designers over the years, but never before have any of those projects involved a 6+ month-long road trip through small towns all across Sweden. Erik Olovsson, who recently completed his Master’s Degree in Graphic Design – Storytelling at Konstfack, noted how easy it is “to be sitting in the office and surf design blogs instead of finding inspiration from reality… It’s rare that a designer gets a deeper insight into the client’s business.” With that in mind he bought an old motorhome, cleaned it up, gave it a bright new graphic paint job and hit the road seeking face-to-face interactions with small business across the country.

The crux of his mission is his strict no-fee policy. Instead of money, he takes payment for his design work in trade, with a preference for goods or services that will help him on his way. “Perhaps something to eat? Gasoline? New tires? A new hairdo? A hot shower?” he suggests. So far he’s traded a t-shirt design for a massage and web advice for cinnamon rolls. Overall he’s found that when no money changes hands the client/designer relationship is much more collaborative and equanimous.

He recently held a concert on the roof of his van, did the brand identity for a Swedish-owned mango factory in Burkina Faso and completed a poster for a letter writing group (check his blog for images of the group’s founders’ Wes Anderson-esque vintage letter writing suitcase). It’s too bad that his thesis didn’t include plans for a Designjet, as we’d gladly cook him a hot meal in exchange for some modern Scandinavian design. Currently, he’s in Östersund, and you follow his journey on Instagram at #eriksdesignbuss or on his blog, where he posts images of his travels as well as his work in process.

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Designer Jon Daniel created the new identity for last weekend’s Brixton Splash festival, alongside street banners (above) and a gallery of ‘Jamaicons’ posters to celebrate the 50th anniverary of the country’s independence…

The Brixton Splash free street festival took place on Sunday August 5 and featured a rebranded logo from Daniel (on banner, above), who used the Jamaican motto, ‘Out of Many, One People’ as a theme to reflect the country’s fifty years of independence.

The rebrand included the new logo applied on all related festival material, with superlite posters sited across the Lambeth area of south London and street banners hung throughout Brixton high street. Daniel also made a series of poster artworks celebrating ‘Jamaicons’.

These graphic artworks are currently being shown on the side of the famous Ritzy Picturehouse cinema – the first time that the institution has allowed their ‘picture wall’ to be used in this way since it was launched four years ago.

Figures illusrated on the ‘Jamaicons’ wall include Bob Marley, Marcus Garvey, Linton Johnson, Michael Holding, Merlene Ottey, Mary Seacole, Queen Nanny, Grace Jones and, of course, Usain Bolt (above), who went on to celebrate victory in the Olympic 100m during the evening of the festival.

All photography by Martha Love. More of Daniel’s work at jon-daniel.com.

CR for the iPad
Read in-depth features and analysis plus exclusive iPad-only content in the Creative Review iPad App. Longer, more in-depth features than we run on the blog, portfolios of great, full-screen images and hi-res video. If the blog is about news, comment and debate, the iPad is about inspiration, viewing and reading. As well as providing exclusive, iPad-only content, the app will also update with new content throughout each month. Try a free sample issue here

CR in Print
The August Olympic Special issue of Creative Review contains a series of features that explore the past and present of the Games to mark the opening of London 2012: Adrian Shaughnessy reappraises Wolff Olins’ 2012 logo, Patrick Burgoyne talks to LOCOG’s Greg Nugent about how Wolff Olins’ original brand identity has been transformed into one consistent look for 2012, Eliza Williams investigates the role of sponsorship by global brands of the Games, Mark Sinclair asks Ian McLaren what it was like working with Otl Aicher as a member of his 1972 Munich Olympics design studio, Swiss designer Markus Osterwalder shows off some of his prize Olympic items from his vast archive, and much more. Plus, Rick Poynor’s assessment of this year’s Recontres d’Arles photography festival, and Michael Evamy on the genius of Yusaku Kamekura’s emblem for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

Please note, CR now has a limited presence on the newsstand at WH Smith high street stores (although it can still be found in WH Smith travel branches at train stations and airports). If you cannot find a copy of CR in your town, your WH Smith store or a local independent newsagent can order it for you. You can search for your nearest stockist here. Alternatively, call us on 020 7970 4878 to buy a copy direct from us. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 970 4878 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.

Carved into giant granite boulders by unemployed stonecutters in the 1930s, the 23 inspirational messages of the Babson Boulders are a unique work of graphic design

Dogtown Common is an area of dense woodland in the Cape Ann area of Massachusetts. It was originally home to one of America’s first settler colonies (you can still see remains of their houses, half-buried in the undergrowth) but has long since been abandoned and is now the domain of wildlife and walkers. Many of those walkers come in search of Dogtown’s most famous feature – a series of mottoes and inspirational messages carved into some of the massive granite boulders which litter the area.

The Babson Boulders are named after millionaire philanthropist and entrepeneur Roger Babson who commissioned unemployed local stonecutters to create them in the 1930s. “My family says that I am defacing the boulders and disgracing the family with these inscriptions, but the work gives me a lot of satisfaction, fresh air, exercise and sunshine,” Babson said of the project. “I am really trying to write a simple book with words carved in stone instead of printed paper.”

Contemporary images of the boulders from when they were first carved in the 30s (seen at thedacrons.com)

Most of the mottoes (which are carved in leters around ten inches high) are worthy calls to action, redolent of the Great Depression during which they were carved. They urge those who come across them to “Keep out of debt”, “Help Mother” and “Be on time”.

Others simply state admirable qualities such as “Courage” and “Intelligence”.

Rough maps are available to the location of most of the boulders but, as I found while on holiday there recently, there is much enjoyment to be found in just stumbling upon them.

thedacrons.com has a complete list of the mottoes with images

CR for the iPad
Read in-depth features and analysis plus exclusive iPad-only content in the Creative Review iPad App. Longer, more in-depth features than we run on the blog, portfolios of great, full-screen images and hi-res video. If the blog is about news, comment and debate, the iPad is about inspiration, viewing and reading. As well as providing exclusive, iPad-only content, the app will also update with new content throughout each month. Try a free sample issue here

CR in Print
The August Olympic Special issue of Creative Review contains a series of features that explore the past and present of the Games to mark the opening of London 2012: Adrian Shaughnessy reappraises Wolff Olins’ 2012 logo, Patrick Burgoyne talks to LOCOG’s Greg Nugent about how Wolff Olins’ original brand identity has been transformed into one consistent look for 2012, Eliza Williams investigates the role of sponsorship by global brands of the Games, Mark Sinclair asks Ian McLaren what it was like working with Otl Aicher as a member of his 1972 Munich Olympics design studio, Swiss designer Markus Osterwalder shows off some of his prize Olympic items from his vast archive, and much more. Plus, Rick Poynor’s assessment of this year’s Recontres d’Arles photography festival, and Michael Evamy on the genius of Yusaku Kamekura’s emblem for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

Please note, CR now has a limited presence on the newsstand at WH Smith high street stores (although it can still be found in WH Smith travel branches at train stations and airports). If you cannot find a copy of CR in your town, your WH Smith store or a local independent newsagent can order it for you. You can search for your nearest stockist here. Alternatively, call us on 020 7970 4878 to buy a copy direct from us. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 970 4878 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.