Hasta La Ideas

TV channel Yesterday has unveiled its refreshed visual identity courtesy of brand agency DixonBaxi. We asked the agency’s Aporva Baxi to talk us through the work…

“The brief was very much about challenging the perception of how history can feel,” DixonBaxi’s Aporva Baxi told CR. “We were asked to bring it to life through a vivid, immersive experience which puts the viewer at the heart of the story. Plus everything was up for grabs so our approach was to reinvent the attitude and feel of the channel as well as the look. The only element we retained was the channel’s associated green colour, although even this was altered to be more vibrant.”

“The new logo was designed to feel iconic, timeless as if it could have been made by civilisations past,” Baxi continues. “We also wanted it to have a physicality and a sense of scale. By and large I think we’ve succeeded in creating a distinct icon. UKTV were very keen to keep the logo at the centre of the look to help cement the brand in the viewers mind.

“We also developed a fresh, restrained on screen presentation system which is derived from the facets of the logo. These sweep anti clockwise revealing slices of time and content. The typeface is one called Replica and it has great legibility on air while have some beautiful detailing making it quite distinct”

Yesterday’s Y, rather like Channel 4’s sculptural 4 logo, or BBC 2’s number two, is poised to take on new forms and star in an ongoing series of channel idents, the first four of which are shown below:

“Although the logo was originally designed in 3D we had always thought that it should be made physically,” says Baxi. “So we worked with model makers Einstein’s Octopus to develop 4 different Y’s hewn from American oak, distressed copper, aged lacquer and concrete. We really wanted the idents to feel immersive and dramatic with the logo being revealed through the narrative.”

“They are abstracted but have a context to different stories within history – this is further enhanced with the audio which was created to really place the viewer within the action. Each ident reflects a different theme within the channel programming. The live action approach allowed us to create a more cinematic feel that should hopefully feel quite distinct. Alongside the 20 second idents there are 10 second, 3 second and 1 second versions. Additionally we have created assets for on line and mobile use as well as comprehensive on and off air guidelines”

“Overall,” adds Baxi, “we all wanted to transform the feel of the channel completely and deliver on the idea that history can be entertainment.”

dixonbaxi.com

Client UKTV
Concept, design, direction, production DixonBaxi
Audio Massive Music
Ident Post Production Rushes

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 July issue of Creative Review features a piece exploring the past and future of the dingbat. Plus a look at the potential of paper electronics and printed apps, how a new generation of documentary filmmakers is making use of the web, current logo trends, a review of MoMA New York’s group show on art and type, thoughts on how design may help save Greece and much more. Also, in Monograph this month we showcase a host of rejected design work put together by two Kingston students.

Please note, CR is no longer stocked in WH Smith high street stores (although it can still be found in WH Smith travel branches at stations and airports). If you cannot find a copy of CR in your town, your independent newsagent can order it for you or you can search for your nearest stockist here. Alternatively, email Laura McQueen (laura.mcqueen@centaur.co.uk) or call her on 020 7970 4878 to buy a copy direct from us. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 292 3703 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.

In their Terrible People, Good Design show, this year’s Visual Communication graduates from Dublin’s IADT explored a wide variety of engaging and topical subjects, including the country’s current economic crisis, gay rights, bio-engineering and mobile phone dependency. Our guest correspondent, Holly Brennan, visited the show.

The identity for the show, developed by Rory Bradley and Will Rice, sets the tone with a slick poster and website showcasing the students work and giving a great impression of the group’s personality.

terrible-people.com

There was a particular emphasis this year on digital design, with some impressive web and app projects, all supported by beautiful print pieces.

Strong examples of these include Peter McDonagh’s app Taste This for iOS, based on Niki Segnit’s Flavour Thesaurus, in which he used high-speed photography to generate stunning abstract visualizations of flavour pairings. These were then incorporated into an attractive, colourful interface which allows users to easily and intuitively navigate the information.
petermcdonagh.com

Sarah Fox’s Powow website and app provide an online platform for radio enthusiasts to share, explore and discuss a curated selection of quality podcasts. The impressive digital work is supported by bold, eycatching typographic posters, with the design for each new series of shows overprinted onto the last. She has also produced playful, illustrative motion pieces to explain and promote the site. Visit the beta version of the site here.
sarahjunefox.com

Anton Lebed’s Sonitus app allows music lovers and producers to find and purchase music using a colour coded genre indentification system, which he has incorporated into a complex infographic charting the genealogy of electronic music.
an-le.me

Rory Bradley’s work strongly demonstrates the multdisciplinary nature of the course, with elements of exhibition design, signage, web, print, motion and infographics incorporated into his project. His identity system for the Hucknell Clinic – For freckle-free living (a fictional clinic that ‘cures’ red-heads of their ginger hair and freckly skin) takes an absurd concept and executes it in a credible and realistic way, with a high level of craft and care put into each application, even down to the design of the exhibition space itself which includes a clinical display case of gruesome skin and hair specimens.
rorybradley.ie

Another example of a project which takes an extreme, imagined scenario and brings it to life with a strong, convincing campaign is Will Rice’s identity for the Irish Integration Project. The campaign is devised to educate Irish citizens on the proposed sale of the Irish State to a foreign country in exchange for repayment of its massive debts.

In one of the few examples of packaging design in the show, Mark O’Brien’s project highlights and questions the ethics of meat production. His brand identity for Better Farms uses fun, engaing imagery and copywriting to promote this lab-grown meat product as a healthy, ethical alternative to conventional meat.

This is just a small selection of the fantastic work that was on show. To see all of the terrible people’s good design visit their website here. Or to get a quicker overview of the show (or the work of students from other courses) see 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 July issue of Creative Review features a piece exploring the past and future of the dingbat. Plus a look at the potential of paper electronics and printed apps, how a new generation of documentary filmmakers is making use of the web, current logo trends, a review of MoMA New York’s group show on art and type, thoughts on how design may help save Greece and much more. Also, in Monograph this month we showcase a host of rejected design work put together by two Kingston students.

Please note, CR is no longer stocked in WH Smith high street stores (although it can still be found in WH Smith travel branches at stations and airports). If you cannot find a copy of CR in your town, your independent newsagent can order it for you or you can search for your nearest stockist here. Alternatively, email Laura McQueen (laura.mcqueen@centaur.co.uk) or call her on 020 7970 4878 to buy a copy direct from us. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 292 3703 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.

When it comes to showcasing different paper stocks, die or laser cutting to allow the juxtaposition of available colours seems to be the way to go, judging by the latest promotional tomes from Fedrigoni and also GF Smith…

Back in May we showcased Fedrigoni’s Our Grand Tour book (designed by me-and-dave.com) which used a combination of laser cutting and foil blocking to create an illustrated tour around the globe. Now the paper manufacturer has enlisted the design talents of SEA to create the Sirio Color book which sports wonderfully precise concentric circular cuts through different colour pages…

Each page of the Sirio Color book displays the name of its colour and its weight, along with a list of other available weights.

Beyond the first twenty pages, instead of circular cuts, the pages each displays its GSM in large numerals:

fedrigoni.co.uk

GF Smith‘s latest promotional materials also make use of paper engineering and die-cut circles to show off its Colorplan range in a series of books called Play. Here’s a look through Play 1:

And here’s a look through Play 2 which looks to juxtapose angles as well as colours:

Both Play 1 and Play 2 are housed in Play 3 – which cleverly (if not slightly bafflingly) opens both ways but doesn’t concertina:

GF Smith has also produced a set of colourful notebooks which also showcase its Colorplan papers and which makes the most of juxtaposing different colours:

gfsmith.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 July issue of Creative Review features a piece exploring the past and future of the dingbat. Plus a look at the potential of paper electronics and printed apps, how a new generation of documentary filmmakers is making use of the web, current logo trends, a review of MoMA New York’s group show on art and type, thoughts on how design may help save Greece and much more. Also, in Monograph this month we showcase a host of rejected design work put together by two Kingston students.

Please note, CR is no longer stocked in WH Smith high street stores (although it can still be found in WH Smith travel branches at stations and airports). If you cannot find a copy of CR in your town, your independent newsagent can order it for you or you can search for your nearest stockist here. Alternatively, email Laura McQueen (laura.mcqueen@centaur.co.uk) or call her on 020 7970 4878 to buy a copy direct from us. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 292 3703 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.

The University of Brighton’s Graphic Design & Illustration BA Degree Show is on show in London this weekend, giving us London-based folks the chance to check out some great work from this year’s graduates. Here’s our pick of the exhibition.

First up are two elaborate sculptures from Emily Frances Barrett, who was on the Illustration course.

Here’s a detail of the work above:

There were a number of other appealing installations as part of the exhibition. I particularly liked Zoe Landry‘s work, which included this piece, titled The Endless Forest, which contained a 3D forest world displayed within a wooden structure.

Landry, who was also on the Illustration course, also displayed this mix of small sculptures and screenprints.

Matt Chandler, a Graphic Design graduate, presented this installation of his work, which included a number of balloons featuring his contact details, a nice touch.

Nadine Shaban (Graphic Design) displayed a striking set of images inspired by the Egyptian revolution.

Sarah Julia Clark (Illustration), who works under the name Studio Her, created this set of posters exploring contemporary feminism.

Michael Hillman (Graphic Design) is showing a set of lecture posters titled Science or Alchemy.

Alex Wells (Illustration) is showing work with a maritime feel:

Hugo Evans (Graphic Design) has a set of bold screenprinted posters on display:

Mia Warner (Graphic Design) is showing a piece of arresting (if somewhat menacing) calligraphy:

Lucy Kirk (Illustration) draws on her former life as a farmer’s daughter in a set of small sculptures and drawings.

Jon Taylor (Illustration) is also showing a mix of illustration and sculptures, as well as some books.

We finish up the round-up with a set of paintings by Tom Matthews. More of his work can be seen here.

The University of Brighton show is at Netil House, 1-7 Westgate Street, London, E8 3RL all this weekend. You can also view the graduates’ work online at nowwhat2012.com.

Sick of reading the same old journalistic clichés in the news? In a round-robin newspaper sent to various titles, Ravensbourne student Simon Rogers has issued a challenge to journalists to expand their linguistic horizons and reach for that thesaurus

Around this time of year the CR offices receive a deluge spate of self-promotional material from graduating students, so much so that a swift scurryfunge is in order everytime we have visitors. However, an A3 newspaper from Simon Rogers entitled Linguistic Langour Plagues The Press immediately stood out obtruded.

It’s a chain letter challenge to journalists to stop using clichés or tired phrases such as ‘under fire’, ‘binge drinking’ and that current favourite ‘austere/austerity’ and instead try to be more adventurous venturesome in their writing.

Rogers picks out stories from various papers where some of his pet hates have been used and suggests livelier alternatives: instead of ‘Rhianna reveals her attraction to men who eat everything’ why not ‘Rhianna reveals her attraction to pamphagous men’? Instead of ‘under fire’ why not ‘lambasted’?

The paper arrived at CR with a personalised note explaining that, if I had received it, that meant it had already been to the Independent, Metro, Times, Daily Mail and It’s Nice That. The envelope contained three more numbered, stamped and addressed envelopes for the next recipients. Once I had finished with it, all I had to do was pop it into envelope number 7 and stick deposit it in the post.

While a jirged journalist may squizzle at Rogers for his impudence, lecture him on the principles of writing for an audience and even the rich tradition of ‘tabloid speak’ in the UK as a means of being plebicolar, his pulchritudinously designed missive is more than an exercise in phlyarology. Its message is one that even the most flippercanorious writer would do well to note, lest they become too lugubrious.

The paper also contains a challenge to the recipient to use as many of a list of endangered words as possible in an article.

Rogers has just his finished his Foundation at Ravensbourne and will be starting a Graphic Design BA at Kingston in September. See his work 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 July issue of Creative Review features a piece exploring the past and future of the dingbat. Plus a look at the potential of paper electronics and printed apps, how a new generation of documentary filmmakers is making use of the web, current logo trends, a review of MoMA New York’s group show on art and type, thoughts on how design may help save Greece and much more. Also, in Monograph this month we showcase a host of rejected design work put together by two Kingston students.

Please note, CR is no longer stocked in WH Smith high street stores (although it can still be found in WH Smith travel branches at stations and airports). If you cannot find a copy of CR in your town, your independent newsagent can order it for you or you can search for your nearest stockist here. Alternatively, email Laura McQueen (laura.mcqueen@centaur.co.uk) or call her on 020 7970 4878 to buy a copy direct from us. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 292 3703 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.